National hepatitis B vaccination programme
Programa nacional de vacunación contra la hepatitis B
- Date
- 1984 · confidence high
- Place
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Credited to
- Taiwan Department of Health; Chen Ding-shinn and Chen Chien-jen
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
The world's first national hepatitis B vaccination programme, begun in 1984 for newborns of carrier mothers and extended to all newborns from 1986. It sharply reduced chronic hepatitis and liver cancer in children.
It began in July 1984 and extended to all newborns in 1986. The effect on childhood liver cancer was published in 1997 and confirmed in later cohorts.
What it led to
- fall in childhood liver cancer documented by Chang et al. (1997)
- WHO model for universal hepatitis B vaccination
- the first case of cancer prevention through vaccination at national scale